No Longer Singles Awareness Day
by cakelover2468
Summary: Maybe it's not so bad after all - Jerza, with a slight bit of NaLu. For Estevamp4998's third writing challenge, and Valentine's Day.


**Dedicated to my wonderful buddies, Animal, Nature, and Air. Happy Valentine's Day, you guys. You rule.**

The only reason she's even here is because of the candy.

She hates holidays like this, and she hates the way everyone looks at her the way they do, and she'd rather not even leave the house, but Lucy insists, and Lucy's her best friend, so she does it anyway. It's stupid, and ridiculous, and Erza knows it'll hurt, but she has to do it, because she's Titania and she's supposed to be invincible, and no one really needs to know how she feels about today. No one needs to know how much it hurts.

Lucy's spinning around the sweets shop like a top, blond hair flying, eyes shining like stars. Every few seconds she picks up a bit of chocolate, stares at it, then shakes her head and puts it back, much to Erza's exasperation. Everything inside of her is screaming at her to get out before she breaks down, but she can't, because Lucy _will _take her sweet time picking out her chocolate for Natsu, and nothing Erza says will stop her from doing so. Even if she's about three seconds away from grabbing her and screaming that they had to get out _right now _and that _any chocolate will do _because _would Natsu even care what type of chocolate you give him? _He's _Natsu, _for sugar's sake.

Finally, _finally, _Lucy finds the perfect box of chocolates and asks the cashier for a ribbon to tie it up with, which takes yet _another _five minutes because Lucy _will _have to have a ribbon the exact shade of gold that she wants, and the cashier has probably dumped five million piles of ribbon onto the counter by the time she finds what she's looking for. (Which makes Erza start to seriously debate the merits of just knocking her out and grabbing any old bag of chocolate.) She pays for her own tiny bag of chocolate that Lucy insisted she buy, and Erza's ready to just blast out of there at the speed of sound when the cashier asks,

"Aren't you Titania?"

She braces herself for another pity moment, of how it was _so sad that she had to be alone on Valentine's Day _and that she should just _move on already, _but the cashier simply says, "There was someone in here looking for you."

It could have been anyone. A fan, a reporter, anyone at all, because who doesn't know what who Titania is. But, out of nowhere, Erza's breath catches in her throat and her palms start sweating and she doesn't know why, but suddenly she's looking at the cashier and whispering, "Who?"

The cashier shrugs. "It was a boy. Messy blue hair, strange-looking tattoo across his face. Know him?"

Everything blurs.

All sound fades to background noise.

She can't see, can't breathe, can't feel.

_He's back._

The cashier goes on, but Erza doesn't hear her, can't hear her. Her fingers clench around the little bag of chocolate until they turn white, and she's about to blast out of that store and _go find him right now, _but then something the clerk says registers in her brain, and her breath catches again, she can't breathe again, only this time it's for a different reason.

"There was a girl with him, too. Long dark hair, white bows. Looked like they were dating." The cashier smiles. "It was actually pretty cute."

_There was a girl with him._

_Long dark hair, white bows._

_Looked like they were dating._

_There was a girl with him._

Erza doesn't even remember how she got back to the guild hall. She faintly remembers Natsu and Gray pretending to be friends again (_honestly, _their acting is _terrible, _but she likes to pretend she doesn't notice because Natsu's Happy impression is hilarious), and Mira asking if she's all right, but nothing else registers. Everything is blurred and jumbled up and torn apart, and all she wants to do is find him and scream.

And Erza doesn't even know why she does it, but out of nowhere, she's standing up and striding toward the exit, feeling a kind of determination she usually only feels right before an intense battle, and at the same time a nervousness she only feels when she doesn't know if she's going to win the said battle. All eyes in the guild hall follow her as she barges outside, her footsteps getting faster and faster until she's running to a destination she doesn't even know.

"_I-I have something to tell you."_

Her eyes start stinging from the words. The words that had started this whole bundle of regrets she's been carrying around for a year now.

"_Something to tell me? Like what?"_

Her own voice echoes in her mind, so innocently curious, oblivious to the fact that after that day she'd never be truly happy again.

_He didn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry, Erza."_

She never needed an apology. How could an _apology _compare to what he'd taken away from her?

"_Sorry? For what?"_

"_There are…things I need to do. I'm leaving."_

Her boots pound into the sidewalk, faster and faster and faster, as if it could take away the pain.

"_You're…what?"_

_He finally looked at her. "I'm leaving Fiore. I don't know if I'm going to be back. Or if I'm going to be back at all."_

The shock had lasted only for two days. Then came the anger, then the awful, crushing pain – then the worst hurt of all, regret.

_I should have stopped him, should have begged, shouldn't have let him go…_

The tears blur Erza's vision so much, she doesn't even know which way she's going anymore. So it's inevitable that she slams into someone, so hard that they both go toppling over.

"Oh!" Erza gasps, wiping away her tears as fast as she can. "I'm so sor – "

The words die in her throat the instant she realizes who she's looking at.

_It's him._

_It's really him._

What are the odds that she'd run into _him, _of all people?

His name finds its way out of her throat. "_Jellal."_

He stares at her. "Erza."

_He got taller, _is the first coherent thought that forms. _Where's the other girl? _is the second. But the third, the one she chooses to voice aloud, is:

"You came back."

He nods slowly. "Yeah."

A pause follows.

And then next thing she knows, Erza's pulling back her fist, and she punches him so hard he goes flying. Jellal hits the ground with an "OOF!", and she grabs him by the lapels like a gangster from some old movie, yanking him up so that their noses are an inch apart.

"You. Freaking. Jerk."

He gasps for breath. "What the – What was that for?!"

"_That_," she stresses, "was for being the stupidest jerk in the whole entire history of the _world _and _ditching _me here!"

"Erza, I – "

"Don't you _dare _make excuses for yourself, Jellal Fernandez!"

He stares at the ground and doesn't say anything.

Erza slowly sets him down, meeting his eyes as he lets out a breath neither of them knew he was holding.

Then, gently, their lips meet.

"And that," she whispers softly, "is for wising up and coming back."

She smiles, presenting the tiny bag of chocolate to him, making a mental note to thank Lucy later. And slowly, Jellal smiles back.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Jellal."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Erza."

xXx

Meanwhile, Ultear watches the happy couple with a self-satisfied smirk on her face.

"See, Meredy? I told you it'd work. I knew we had to make her jealous for her to actually come looking for him."

The pink-haired girl next to her sighs and rolls her eyes. "You and your tricks, Ultear. How did you even know that was going to work?"

"I had a little chat with Mira." Ultear's eyes sparkle. "But you know what?"

Meredy eyes her warily. "Do I want to know?"

Ultear smirks. "You know that clueless younger brother of mine? Gray? I think he needs a little push in the right direction…"

And the two stroll off, on their eternal quest to get rid of Singles Awareness Day.

**OKAY, FINE, I ADMIT IT, I SCREWED UP.**

**BUT ANGSTY ONE-SHOTS AREN'T REALLY MY THING ARGH WHY DID I DO THIS?!**

**Oh, yeah, the Singles Awareness Day thing is from Bookworms will rule the world's teacher, apparently, so credit goes to them. Yup.**

**So whatever, hope you like it, review and stuff! Yeah!**

**Water, out.**


End file.
